"Our usual landslide": Ubiquitous hazard and socio-economic causes of natural disaster in Indonesia

he cental argument of the paper is that social and economic processes may increase the vulnerability of populations to natural disasters. Such processes are to be considered as causes of disaster in the same way as the more obvious physical or environmental phenomenon. The concept of natural hazard as a normal part of people’s relationship to their environment is discussed. It is suggested that people are able to adapt to a certain range of hazards, but that external factors (such as resettlement) may change people’s relationship to their environment; people’s capacity to deal with natural hazards may be reduced or restricted, thereby increasing their vulnerability to natural disasters.